Since there were no Walmarts
in the Midbar, you've got to wonder where Hashem
expected the Bnei Yisroel to come up with the many materials
needed to build the Mishkan. After all, the shopping
list included; gold, silver, copper, wool dyed purple and wool
dyed blue, linen, goats' hair, seal skins, shittim wood,
olive oil, spices, two shoham gems and twelve additional
precious gems.
Since Hashem has a policy not to ask for the impossible, you've got to
be wondering:
- How far was this desert from the north pole?
- Was Moshe running a major mining operation?
- Was there actually a Walmart in the Midbar?
Actually, Hashem made sure that somewhere along the way each of the
materials for the Mishkan could be picked up. Take the gold, silver and
precious vessels, for example. The night that Bnei Yisroel left Mitzrayim,
they were commanded to collect their neighbors's valuables. In fact, the
Egyptians forced the Bnei Yisroel to take their gold, silver and precious
posessions. But that's not all! The "gold rush" continued at the Red
Sea. When the Egyptian army drowned, their ornaments, jewels and
treasures washed up on shore and made them even richer!
In the Midbar, the morning dew brought more than the miracle of mann for
the tzadikim. Every portion of mann was spackled with precious gems -
precisely the ones needed for the Mishkan!
Now, how about them shittim? Certainly cedar-like trees don't grow "like
trees" in the Midbar. Right? Right!! Actually, Hashem - or more
specifically Yaakov Avinu - "planted" the seed for shittim three hundred years
before. With his Ruach Hakodesh, he saw that his descendants would need
shittim wood for the Mishkan, so he planted trees all over Mitzrayim. Before he died, Yaakov commanded his children to take the shittim wood with
them when they would leave Mitzrayim in the future. Imagine the sight - the
greatest tzadikim of Moshe's generation carrying shoulder full of shittim
wood across the Yam Suf!!
Then there's the 103-foot (72 amah) wooden beam. Ever heard of "A
Tree Grows In Brooklyn?" Well, here's "A Tree Grows In Be'er
Sheva". Actually, that tree had an important cameo in Jewish
history that goes all the way back to Avrohom Avinu.
He planted the original seed and, throughout his years, prayed
and served his guests beneath the shade of its towering trunk.
As the Bnei Yisroel crossed the Yam Suf, the
Malachim chopped down the tree and dropped the giant
trunk on the sea bed before them. The people understood that
this huge relic was destined for greatness, so they took it
along with them. Indeed, the giant tree trunk became the middle
beam in the Mishkan.
Finally, there's the tachash, a one-horned animal with a multi-colored
coat. This animal never even made it onto the "endangered species" list.
That's because it was one-of-a-kind and 'tailor created' to appear in the
Midbar just in time for the Mishkan-makers to make use of its beautiful
coat of fur. No other tachash has been seen since...
Unless you prescribe to the opinion that a tachash is a common seal. In
which case, there was at least one arctic animal that went way off
course!
